The Muse in Histology

Histology has remained very much the same since the 1800s. If you are interested in a history of it, you can look here. For a science that diagnoses so many diseases, and is fraught with potential to cause patients harm, it is a wonder someone hasn’t come up with a better way to look at……

What Happens to a Biopsy

It occurs to me I haven’t described what happens to biopsies and surgical specimens that are sent to the lab. I have written about their loss, their mishandling, and even described a few odd foreign bodies. It’s time to remedy that oversight. The biopsy in question will be a common one from the gut taken……

His and Her’s

The photo is of two different types of biopsies embedded in two paraffin blocks. These are the what we make in histology from every biopsy and surgical specimen. I will tell you what types of biopsies are in these two blocks soon, but first I want to explain why I have shown them to you.……

It’s Just a Stupid Job

There are days that I am stunned by stupid. That someone could possibly think what they have done is acceptable is by itself amazing but then they defend what they have done. A statement like that must be followed with examples or you could correctly think I am ranting and stop reading  but I have……

Shitty Doctors and Care Guides

My family doctor is kind of shitty at his job. When he can’t diagnose a problem he literally shrugs and says ‘the tests are normal’ and does nothing else. It took me three years to be diagnosed with a condition that he had shrugged off because he never did the right test. I had to……

Computers in the Lab

It is usually easy for me to find topics to write about. I need only pay attention at work. For instance, I was cutting a bloody autopsy block when I remembered the H1N1 block I had cut years ago. With all the discussion still surrounding vaccines, I thought it was a good time to share……

H1N1

In 2009, in the middle of the H1N1 flu pandemic, I cut an autopsy block that was mostly clotted blood. I knew the H1N1 killed by filling lungs with blood. It was unsettling to have a block like that in my hand. Had the person really died from H1N1? At the time, there was all……

Consults

It is common in the field of pathology that one pathologist is not certain of a diagnosis. The pathologist is the type of doctor that reads the slides I prepare in the histology lab. They can look at the slide and usually they can see what is wrong with the patient. They can tell if……

As a Patient

I have a medical condition that necessitated a couple of surgeries and several years of hospital based treatments. My insurance was not accepted at the hospital where I worked, which was the best hospital in the area. Because of that, and because I couldn’t afford the tens of thousands of dollars my healthcare would cost……

A Perspective

When I go to work and see the same mistakes happen again and again, I get discouraged. I see the way some techs work, their poor skills, their unwillingness to improve. I see supervision addressing the problems of broken equipment, budgets, scheduling, and not work habits that cause delays, errors, and poor results. I began……